Mar 13, 2014 10:51 AM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

Macalester College in Minnesota has launched a campaign to warn students about the oppressive impact of words such as "wuss," "you guys" and "derp," Campus Reform reported.

The University's department of Multicultural life started the More Than Words: Inclusive Language Campaign in order to "raise awareness about the importance of using inclusive language," members of the department said. The campaign includes a series of YouTube videos and posters around campus.

"Words can have a huge impact on people, "a Macalester College student said in a YouTube video posted in August." I mean we've all heard of the saying 'sticks and stone may break my bones but words will never hurt me,' and as you grow up you learn that's not true."

The campaign hopes to encourage individuals to take ownership of the words they choose to use and to encourage people to examine their use of words that they know are problematic as well as words that they feel may be just fine.

"I joke around with my friends like 'Don't be a wuss, don't be a girl,' come on just do this," a student said in the YouTube video. "I never really took the time to think about what that meant, and how loaded that phrase was."

Fourth-year student Daniel Surman told Campus Reform there initially were only a handful of posters instructing students not to use certain words, but they quickly multiplied.

"The first wave was [words] like 'gay,' 'girl,' 'retarded'," Surman said. "Then they had a second wave where suddenly the posters increased in number remarkably ... that showed all of these other words that weren't included before."

The posters circulating campus instruct students to avoid words such as "crazy," or "derp" and replace them with "person with a mental health condition" or "person with a learning or cognitive disability," Campus Reform reported.

 "And that's when people started being like, 'is this seriously happening?" Surman said.

Members of the campaign also released multiple videos, one of which featured comments from a professor.

"Our culture is heterosexist, it's racist, it's patriarchal. It's transphobic, homophobic, ageist, ableist," SooJin Pate, a Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies, said in another video." Our language... not only reflects that culture but also creates it."

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